Greek Life disaffiliation supports unbiased pledging
Sorority women disaffiliate during recruitment so pledges aren't biased.
Published Aug. 25, 2009
During recruitment week, many precautions are made involving the disaffiliation of certain women with roles or responsibilities regarding the acclimation of new students.
One precaution taken is the disaffiliation of Pi Chis from their chapters throughout recruitment week so they might better help the women going through the process.
"Every campus has some variation on Pi Chis, also know as Panhellenic counselors. They are a group of women that do formally disaffiliate from their chapter for recruitment," said Kristen Temple, associate director of Residential Academic Programs. "During this time they don't talk to anyone in their organization, only the women going through recruitment."
Becoming a Pi Chi involves an official application process and those selected to be Panhellenic counselors find the title prestigious.
"It's an honor to be selected," Temple said. "You're going to help other women become members of something that you really value."
Greek Residential Life employees who live in residence halls disaffiliated from their chapters during recruitment as well, in order to avoid influencing decisions regarding which houses to preference.
"Residential Life doesn't require them to disaffiliate and PHA doesn't either," Temple said. "Typically what happens is that their chapter asks them to because they're so busy with their Res. Life duties there isn't time to go over and do recruitment at their houses. They really need to be more Panhellenic generic towards those women that are considering becoming Greek in order to help them make the best decision."
In the residence halls, disaffiliation means not displaying any memorabilia or wearing articles of clothing that identify which chapter the employee might belong to. The specifics of what the disaffiliation process entails can vary from hall to hall depending on the Hall Coordinator's thoughts or wishes.
"I have personally never required them to disaffiliate," Lathrop Hall Coordinator Barbie Banks said. "That's something their chapter and Panhellenic asks them to do. I ask them to take down stuff in their rooms and not wear T-shirts that identify their chapter name. They do this so that the women have an unbiased mindset going into recruitment."
Banks explained disaffiliation in the residence halls does not affect many employees since most Greeks do not have to time to be employed by Residential Life as well as most Residential Life employees do not have time to be chapter members.
"We have a hard time recruiting from the Greek system because both Greek and Reslife take up a lot of your time," Banks said. "To do both takes a lot of time management."
As a member of Chi Omega, a Community Advisor in Lathrop Hall and a Summer Welcome leader, Sue Yun has become familiar with the disaffiliation process.
"I approached Barbie about disaffiliating because as a Summer Welcome leader I had already gone through the ordeal," Yun said. "I had to talk to my chapter about it to tell them that I basically had to disaffiliate from them, meaning that no one could talk to me during recruitment, so that no one who knows me or is on my floor could find out which chapter I'm affiliated with."
Yun said she was often asked what chapter she was affiliated with throughout recruitment and even more at Summer Welcome sessions by women contemplating going through recruitment.
"I would always tell them that I was disaffiliated for the summer and when they asked why I said firstly because I would lose my job and secondly that I wanted them to make their own decisions," Yun said. "I didn't want them to have an opinion of my chapter based on whether or not they liked or disliked me. Their Pi Chis tell them to keep on open mind, not to think about specific members or reputations."
